Is the Russian Catholic Old Believers movement pretty much dead, since it looks like all there parishes are civilly suppressed...

John,

There is presently a single parish in Russia in which a priest of the Russian Greek Catholic Church serves according to the Old Rituals. They never represented more than a very small number of the faithful in a small Church - they were likely never more than 1200 or so faithful (852 adults came into communion with Father Patapios, a smaller number with Father Eustachios).

Many years,

Neil

Exarch Andrei (Katkov) maintained that this was not true. Fr. Paul Mailleux, who had known some of the original Russian Catholics first-hand, also does not mention the "secret agent" theory at all in his biography (certainly the definitive one in English) of Exarch Leonid. With Fr. Paul's attention to historical detail I doubt greatly that if this was demonstrable he would have ommitted the evidence.

What Fr. Paul surmised based on his information was that Susalev attempted to return to Orthodoxy. While promoting himself to the Orthodox bishop Susalev proposed to provide information for proselytizing the specific members of the Russian Greek Catholic Church (he knew nearly all of them personally) back into the Muscovite Church. The bishop refused to accept Susalev. It almost surely wasn't some kind of secret plot; remember this was the same Susalev whom Mdme. Ushakova tried unsuccessfully to teach grammatically correct Russian so he wouldn't say such things as the equivalent of "we is" from the pulpit.

Off-topic, but I noticed about a dozen English language copies of Father Mailleux' biography of Blessed Leonid available at AbeBooks about a week ago - most at reasonable prices. (About a half-dozen French language copies as well, as I recollect.)

Many years,

Neil

There aren't many left around, so grab them while you can. I've seen some in the $20 range.

Dear Neil,
Pavel Parfentiev bases this upon his research in the archives of the Tsarist secret police. He accuses Father Yevstafii of fingering at least two Russian Catholic priests to the Okhrana. I read it within his 2004 biography of Mother Ekaterina Abrikosova, T.O.P.
In Christ,
Brendan

Whatever the precise historical truth is, be that a paid proselytizer or a paid informant (or both), Fr. Evstachy is not likely be forwarded for beatification.

I have recently started writing an article about the life of Fr. Potapy Emelyanov. I would be very grateful for any prayers for its successful completion.

Brendan,

Prayers for success in your article.

Many years,

Neil